A former political prisoner, who fled to the United States after being
part of the 1983 mass escape from the H-Blocks of Long Kesh 35 years
ago, is making a new attempt to clear his name.

Kevin Barry Artt is seeking to overturn a verdict that he was involved
in a 1978 IRA attack in which a prison official died. The 59-year-old,
who spent several years behind bars in the US fighting extradition to
Britain, has settled in California, but never abandoned his appeal
against his conviction.

In 1983, he was sentenced to life imprisonment on the basis of
statements made during a brutal interrogation at the hands of the RUC
police. Defence lawyers now argue that the flawed trial process renders
his conviction unsafe.

A month after lodging his appeal papers, Mr Artt joined 37 other
republican prisoners in the ‘Great Escape’ from Long Kesh, the biggest
jailbreak in British or Irish history, making his way to the US.

Nine years later, in 1992, he was arrested on a passport violation,
leading to the British authorities seeking his extradition. Along with
three others men, Pol Brennan, James Smyth and Terrence Kirby, they
became known as the H-Block 4. Following a lengthy campaign by
Irish-Americans, the US courts ruled in against sending Mr Artt back.

In 2000 the British government announced that the extradition requests
for Artt, Brennan, and Kirby were being withdrawn as part of the Good
Friday Agreement. The men officially remain ‘on the run’, but in 2003
the British prison authorities said they are not being “actively
pursued”.

On Friday, Mr Artt’s revived challenge came before the Court of Appeal
in Belfast, but came to an immediate halt when prosecutors said they
have still to retrieve documents from the original case.

His lawyers lodged papers setting out fresh grounds on which they
contend the conviction should be quashed.

Outside court, Mr Artt’s solicitor, Fearghal Shiels of Madden &
Finucane, claimed the only evidence implicating his client came from
admissions he made under duress at the Castlereagh police detention
centre.

“The conduct of the RUC officers during those interrogations render
those statements entirely unreliable and should have been excluded at
trial,” Mr Shiels added.

“It is our contention that Mr Artt’s conviction is manifestly unsafe and
should be quashed.”

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